Back in 2024, Warrensburg Ford was “stuck” in place selling 30-40 cars per month.
Evan Harris, Dealer Principal, and Shawn Jeffrey, General Manager, realized the COVID time was long gone and they had started to feel the compression in the market and on gross.
Located just east of Kansas City, Warrensburg Ford had a great reputation in the community as they operated with a simple promise – treat every customer like family.
So why were they stuck selling 30-40 cars? The store was doing very little from a marketing and advertising standpoint. Evan and Shawn were highly motivated to get a consistent, long-term plan in place, but they didn’t have anything worth building on.
That’s when they stumbled across Fountain Forward’s Automotive Accelerator.
1 year into our partnership total sales increased by 60.45% YOY. The Ford store sold 645 vehicles in 2024 compared to 402 in 2023.
In 2025, Warrensburg kept the throttle down and smashed historical records going back over 20 years.
March of 2025 was a record month, at 88 sales and gross up 57.82% compared to the prior year.
This record was later smashed again, as they crushed the all time gross record in June.
They didn’t stop there- they then sold the all-time group record (113 units) that was set in 2015. The store is pacing to do nearly 1,000 units this year.
We love getting texts like this!
Here’s what happened
Warrensburg Ford was founded in 2005 by Cliff Harris and is now led by his son Evan Harris. The family had four stores, one Ford location, and three CDJR locations.
Evan took a more prominent role when Cliff was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 2024. At only 21 years old, Evan has overcome a tremendous amount of adversity and has done a fantastic job leading the store to new heights.
The store had earned their reputation– from transparent pricing to a handshake-friendly showroom focused on creating happy customers – and had a loyal following across central Missouri and beyond.
However, in order to thrive the store needed more than just a great reputation. They struggled to find and attract new customers.
Evan and Shawn knew there was much more opportunity around their area to increase sales, but they just weren’t sure how to find those customers.
That’s when Evan and Shawn reached out to Fountain Forward.
In our initial analysis of the store, we realized that Warrensburg Ford’s digital strategy was virtually non-existent, and the dealership was a great candidate for the Automotive Accelerator.
Instead of putting Warrensburg’s advertising dollars in saturated and competitive traditional channels, we went “all in” on digital – specifically Facebook and Google – and bet on digital being the best catalyst for growth.
Fountain Forward implemented a brand new Media Mix Model and finally had an omni channel approach they were confident in.
BONUS - How Warrensburg Ford Escaped from Legacy Tech
Warrensburg Ford’s previous website and website platform was like most others in the industry. It was slow, failed Core Web Vitals, and boxed the dealership into a poor user experience.
Warrensburg Ford chose Overfuel – and their high-performance website stack – to host and manage their website.
This was a MAJOR decision as Overfuel is not a certified vendor. This was a decision driven by data and analytics that many other dealerships are too cautious to make. A huge shout-out to the Warrensburg Ford team for trusting the process, trusting the numbers, and making the choice that’s best for their dealership.
Speed and the user experience improved, paving the way for Fountain Forward to drive high-quality, highly-engaged traffic into opportunities.
Evan and Shawn were fully confident in their marketing and advertising strategy. They could then divert their attention and focus to processes and personnel at the store.
As lead volume grew at the store, they’ve been able to make those customers feel as if they were like family too.
Well done, Warrensburg Ford Team!
